


Clear as Mud

by sorrel_forbes



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Divination, Friendship, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-29
Updated: 2013-06-29
Packaged: 2017-12-16 12:36:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 189
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/862098
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sorrel_forbes/pseuds/sorrel_forbes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After just the right amount of rain, the clay gets slick and silty; makes mud that's soft like butter. It doesn't quite reflect the sunlight, but sifts it through organic matter to cultivate germane maybes.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Clear as Mud

Behind the greenhouses, Pomona keeps a fenced-off square of desert clay. It doesn’t look like much from the outside, but Minerva knows that on the inside, the desert scrub stretches to a distant horizon, and private thoughts seem loud in the stretched-out silence.

After just the right amount of rain, the clay gets slick and silty; makes mud that’s soft like butter. It doesn't quite reflect the sunlight, but sifts it through organic matter to cultivate germane maybes.

Sometimes the mud hardens into smooth, tessellated plates of broad focus. Other times it feathers into paper-thin curls; a kaleidoscope of possible futures. On particularly miserable days, it throws up grimy, leathery premonitions. But however it matures, mud is always personal and relevant. It’s gentler than dispassionate Ravenclaw theorising. More sensible than thin liquids in cut crystal.

Minerva never ceases to wonder how Albus can dismiss this side of Pomona’s practical wisdom while encouraging Sibyl Trelawny’s histrionics, but for now she resolves to think of more pleasant matters. She sits on the wooden fence with her friend, their shoulders touching, and they watch their reflections together in countless curls of clay.


End file.
